01/07/2019: Guide released
05/07/2019:

• Added detailed info on weapon choices.
  
• Created a rating system for hidden spots.
  
• Added tips and tricks category.
  
• Added more spots for Mercenary Park, Badwater, and Upward.
  
• Added spots for Snowplow, Brimstone, Enclosure, Hellstone and Hoodoo.

12/07/2019: Added a paragraph about enemy sentries
28/08/2019: Added new spots for Frontier, Snowycoast and Swiftwater
14/02/2019: Added some videos

Video demonstrating the playstyle

The Ninjaneer is a subclass of the Engineer based around using teleporters to ambush enemies. This playstyle can be used both offensively and defensively. This guide will be covering the Ninjaneer on defense in Attack/Defend and Payload.

While an offensive Ninjaneer tries to sneak behind the enemy, the defensive Ninjaneer takes advantage of the areas currently under his team's control to plant a teleporter and use it later if the enemy captures points.

Once the Ninjaneer's plan is set in motion, he is able to repeatedly build sentries in front of the enemy spawn, delaying them and wasting their time, which is what RED is supposed to do when defending. Some players might become paranoid enough that they will try searching for you and your teleporter, removing them from the main battle. The Ninjaneer indirectly helps his team by weakening the enemy team.

If you haven't guessed it already, the Ninjaneer uses the Eureka Effect for its ability to teleport you to your teleporter exit. The Eureka teleport isn't noisy nor flashy at the exit point, which keeps you hidden.

There are two phases to Ninjaneering: Setup and Exploitation.

During the Setup phase, you'll want to be on a map with moving spawns (there are exceptions like Mountain Lab). Find a hidden teleporter spot and build an exit there, and do not build an entrance. Deactivated teleporters do not make any noise or particles, which makes your exit hidden. Rotation matters for maximum stealth. Certain spots may require bullet jumping, in that case equip the wrangler. The mini-sentry makes bullet jumping easier by giving more knockback, but is not required. If there are no good hidden building spots, you can hide yourself to build once the enemy moves on, but that might lead to your team thinking you're idle. A lot of casual players have bad FOV settings, which means they might miss what you think they can see when walking around.

While you cannot provide your team with teleporters during Setup, don't forget to build a sentry and dispenser. Play normally while trying to not attract attention to your hidden spot. Once the enemy captures points and their spawn moves forward, you can begin the Exploitation phase.

During the Exploitation phase, the enemy shouldn't walk near your hidden spot anymore. Equip the Eureka Effect and teleport to your exit. If you think your teleporter will be found after they start searching, relocate it somewhere in the now unused part of the map. Start building a sentry, you can teleport back to spawn for metal if nobody's nearby to hear the noise. Make it Level 2 with 175 metal upgraded for faster deployment if necessary. Pack it up and go to the enemy spawn.

Use the top HUD to check if there are enemies about to respawn that could interrupt you. Wait for the coast to be clear and deploy your sentry. Upgrade it to Level 3. You may troll the spawncamped enemies even further with taunts, I recommend the Wrench laugh, Rancho Relaxo or Dueling Banjo. Enemy players will eventually start playing Spy just to counter your shenanigans specifically. Make sure your teleporter is well hidden and stay close to your sentry to defend it. If you die, teleport back to your exit, unless you think someone is searching and might see you come out of your spot.

Don't forget to go back to spawn and build a dispenser for your team as well. They need it. You can also build an entrance to make them spawncamp, but warn them of your plan or there will be nobody left to defend in the frontlines. However, that will lead to your exit getting found much more quickly.

You'll probably want to choose one utility weapon to help you with spawncamping and one offensive weapon to deal with chasers.

Primary weapons

Shotgun: Reliable and strong, an excellent choice to deal damage.

Panic Attack: Stronger at point blank range, but since you'll be spawncamping you don't want to get too close. Not recommended.

Frontier Justice: Your spawncamping sentry is going to rack up kills. This could work quite nicely if you can survive the angry army of enemies coming out of spawn long enough to use these 180 damage shots.

Widowmaker: You could go on a rampage with that, but it's easy to get overwhelmed.

Rescue Ranger: Choosing this weapon means you're going to repair your sentry from afar while it murders anything coming out of spawn. Keep in mind that enemies will eventually outdamage your repairing, or a demo will launch several stickies to try to destroy it with burst damage. This is when you can use the remote pickup ability to save your sentry. Enemies will give chase, it's up to you to redeploy your sentry and repair it before they reach you, after which they'll fall into your trap and die again.

Pomson 6000: No. Just no.


Secondary weapons

Pistol: Medium damage at a medium range. Best paired with the Rescue Ranger to compensate for its low damage.

Wrangler: As if your spawncamping sentry wasn't already unfair. Tripled health and doubled damage will let you spawncamp with your sentry for longer before needing to retreat. You're probably going to dispose of your sentry and run once it's about to blow up.

Short Circuit: If projectiles classes keep destroying your sentry, this would help, but a smart player would then pick Heavy. Not recommended.

You can interrupt the loud "Teleporter goin' up" voiceline with a quieter one like Negative by hitting the voice keys quickly.

Don't forget that during your respawn time you can use various spectator cameras (static cameras, building camera, teammate camera) to check if there are players searching for your teleporter.

Don't bother trying to repair a redeploying sentry. Because of a bug metal is consumed but the sentry does not regain health when re-upgrading. Only whack it while it's still level 1.

Galaxy Brain Trick - Entrance Decoy:

Suppose the enemy destroyed your spawncamping sentry and someone is now trying to find you and your teleporter exit. If they're no match for your weapons, there's a way to trick them.

See, the killfeed doesn't distinguish between teleporter entrances and exits. What you could do is pretend to be moving your teleporter exit because you're being chased. But you're actually building an entrance. If you get killed, the enemy will destroy the entrance and think he got rid of you and the exit, ending your Ninjaneer shenanigans. If you actually won the fight, destroy the entrance to not mess with your exit, though pulling off this trick should stop them from chasing you until you deploy a new sentry.

Won't work on spies because they can see it's an entrance with the label, but you should be able to kill them.

Hidden spots will be rated using three criteria:

Difficulty represents how hard it is to set up in this spot

Stealth represents how likely this spot will stay hidden from enemies

Safety represents how safe it is to exploit this spot for Ninjaneering

Even if your spot is invisible to humans, there's still one thing that can thwart your plans: Enemy sentries. If your teleporter is somewhere exposed (ground level, open area) it's very likely the sentry's aimbot will find and destroy it. Battle engineers tend to spam minis, so it's possible they'll find your spot randomly. How ironic that the Ninjaneer's nemesis is another Engineer.

You might also be interested in this video that details some spots.

Location: BLU Spawn
Difficulty: *
Stealth: *
Safety: *
Notes: Will get found out quickly by chasers.


Location: BLU Spawn
Difficulty: *
Stealth: **
Safety: **
Notes: Hidden by the blue barrels, less likely to be found.


Location: BLU Spawn
Difficulty: **
Stealth: **
Safety: **
Notes: Requires a Dispenser stepladder to access. Should not be found as long as there are no BLU Soldiers or Demomen jumping. Avoid if a teammate stands there during setup.


Location: Point A
Difficulty: **
Stealth: **
Safety: *
Notes: Requires a Dispenser stepladder to access. Impossible to distinguish from afar, and the concrete bump in the middle hides it from people looking from the building. You might get spotted when going back to the first spawn though.

Mercenary Park is the only map that disables ammo and health packs in the first area after A is captured, which makes your job harder. Teleport back to spawn to get metal.


Location: Tunnel under BLU Spawn
Difficulty: *
Stealth: **
Safety: **
Notes: Nobody ever uses the tunnel under BLU spawn. Why does it even exist? The bush is for extra safety in case someone takes a quick glance, but savvy players will check this tunnel.


Location: Above BLU Spawn
Difficulty: ***
Stealth: **
Safety: **
Notes: Requires bullet jumping. BLU might see and hear you getting there. Build your sentry on the right wall to be less visible.


Location: BLU Spawn
Difficulty: *
Stealth: **
Safety: *


Location: BLU Spawn
Difficulty: *
Stealth: ***
Safety: ***
Notes: Clips into the tire, making it pretty much invisible at most angles.


Location: BLU Spawn
Difficulty: **
Stealth: **
Safety: **
Notes: Almost entirely clips into the rocks, difficult to adjust.


Location: Between BLU Spawn and Point A
Difficulty: *
Stealth: **
Safety: ***
Notes: Not visible unless someone hugs the wall where the ammo box is.


Location: Between Point A and Point B
Difficulty: *
Stealth: *
Safety: **
Notes: This dropdown isn't often used because taking the stairs is more straightforward and lets you shoot at people.


Location: Point B
Difficulty: *
Stealth: **
Safety: ***

Location: BLU Spawn
Difficulty: *
Stealth: **
Safety: *
Notes: You will be heard building, an aware player will check.


Location: Between BLU Spawn and Point A
Difficulty: ***
Stealth: ***
Safety: ***
Notes: Requires bullet jumping. Not easily distinguishable from afar.


Location: Point A
Difficulty: *
Stealth: ***
Safety: ***


Location: Between BLU Spawn and Point A
Difficulty: *
Stealth: **
Safety: **


Location: Roof of the path connecting Point A and Point B
Difficulty: **
Stealth: ***
Safety: ***
Notes: Requires Dispenser stepladder. Place it at the big blue arrow sign to get onto the broken stairs and the roof. Nobody would think of checking there. Would not recommend teleporting unaware teammates there.

Despite not having moving spawns, Mountain Lab is viable for Ninjaneering as some areas aren't visited by BLU after capping A.


Location: BLU Spawn
Difficulty: **
Stealth: **
Safety: **
Notes: Use a Dispenser stepladder or do some jumping. Not visible to those coming from BLU spawn. Might be seen from the other side though.


Location: BLU Spawn
Difficulty: **
Stealth: ***
Safety: ***
Notes: Climb on the tires to get on the roof. This one is straight up evil. The teleporter fully clips into the roof and is totally hidden when placed correctly. The only downside is if a teammate attacks from there and draws fire, as the teleporter can still get damaged by explosions.

Location: Stage 2 Point B
Difficulty: *
Stealth: ***
Safety: *
Notes: Fully clips into the rock. Difficult to use because it's on the path commonly taken by enemies coming out from the forward spawn.

Location: Point B roof
Difficulty: **
Stealth: **
Safety: *
Notes: Requires a Dispenser stepladder. Hidden as long as nobody jumps.


Location: Point B backyard
Difficulty: *
Stealth: **
Safety: *
Notes: Cannot be seen from the above door and is in a sparsely used area. Not very distinguishable from the B roof, might be spotted by someone seeking the healthpack.


Location: Point B backyard
Difficulty: *
Stealth: **
Safety: *
Notes: Alternate position that can be seen from the above door, but is hidden from the B roof and the healthpack.


Location: Point B to Point C connector
Difficulty: ***
Stealth: **
Safety: *
Notes: You can only access it once B is captured. To increase your chances of building without getting spotted, you should wait at the C gate and use the time provided by your teammates fleeing from B to build. Move somewhere else whenever possible.

Location: BLU Spawn
Difficulty: *
Stealth: *
Safety: *
Notes: The bush isn't very thick.


Location: Point A
Difficulty: *
Stealth: **
Safety: *
Notes: Hard to spot from afar.


Location: Point B
Difficulty: **
Stealth: *
Safety: *
Notes: Requires a Dispenser stepladder. You must place the teleporter while jumping. Hidden as long as BLU doesn't turn around in the stairs. A bit tricky to make use of since you must pass through an area in front of the new spawn, but you can also bullet jump up the hole, although it's a bit noisy.

Note that there's a spot at point B that you can access by bullet jumping but can't build on. You could try to hide there.


Location: Point B
Difficulty: *
Stealth: **
Safety: **
Notes: Not visible from below. Just hope nobody comes up here.


Location: Point B
Difficulty: *
Stealth: *
Safety: *
Notes: Hidden as long as BLU doesn't turn around.


Location: Point B
Difficulty: *
Stealth: *
Safety: *
Notes: Anyone with a good FOV coming down will spot it.

Location: BLU Spawn
Difficulty: ***
Stealth: **
Safety: ***
Notes: Requires bullet jumping or the jump spell.


Location: Point B
Difficulty: *
Stealth: ***
Safety: ***
Notes: Hidden from almost every angle.


Location: Between Point B and Point C
Difficulty: ***
Stealth: ***
Safety: ***
Notes: Requires bullet jumping or the jump spell.

Location: Stage 2 - BLU Spawn
Difficulty: *
Stealth: ***
Safety: *
Notes: Really difficult to exploit since it's right in front of BLU Spawn


Location: Stage 3 -Forward BLU Spawn
Difficulty: ***
Stealth: ***
Safety: *
Notes: Requires bullet jumping. Difficult to pull off, as you must find a new location in the first area between A and B's capture.

Location: BLU Spawn
Difficulty: **
Stealth: ***
Safety: ***
Notes: Requires a Dispenser stepladder. Not visible from any common angle thanks to the bush.


Location: Point A
Difficulty: *
Stealth: **
Safety: *


Location: Point B
Difficulty: *
Stealth: ***
Safety: ***
Notes: Cannot be seen by climbing the stairs, you have to check it to find it.

Location: Point B
Difficulty: ***
Stealth: ***
Safety: ***
Notes: Requires bullet jumping, or some tricky crouch-jumping to place an exit on the left side. Rotate and position depending on where the enemy spawns.

Location: Between Point B and Point C
Difficulty: **
Stealth: ***
Safety: **
Notes: Requires a Dispenser stepladder. You can get to the elevated passage from the roof to escape the sight of enemies.

Location: Point A
Difficulty: *
Stealth: **
Safety: **


Location: Point A
Difficulty: ***
Stealth: ***
Safety: ***
Notes: Requires bullet jumping or the jump spell. Unlikely to be found by accident, BLU has no reason to jump up there.


Location: Point B, at the big gate
Difficulty: *
Stealth: **
Safety: *
Notes: Difficult to exploit as you'll be in the path in front of the forward spawn.

Location: Stage 2 -Roof near BLU Spawn
Difficulty: ***
Stealth: ***
Safety: ***
Notes: Requires bullet jumping.


Location: Stage 2 - Narrow path near BLU Spawn
Difficulty: *
Stealth: **
Safety: *
Notes: Will be checked by savvy players.

Location: BLU Spawn
Difficulty: **
Stealth: **
Safety: ***
Notes: Accessed with some jumping or a Dispenser stepladder. Blends in with the thingies on the tank from afar, even though it's in plain sight.


Location: Corridor that opens after A capture
Difficulty: ***
Stealth: **
Safety: **
Notes: Can only be accessed once A is capped.

Location: Point B
Difficulty: *
Stealth: **
Safety: *

Location: BLU Spawn
Difficulty: *
Stealth: **
Safety: *
Notes: You'll be heard building.


Location: Point A building
Difficulty: *
Stealth: **
Safety: **
Notes: As long as there's no sniper attracting spies up there...


Location: Point A building
Difficulty: *
Stealth: *
Safety: *
Notes: Might be seen around the corner with good FOV.


Location: First RED Spawn
Difficulty: *
Stealth: *
Safety: *
Notes: As long as nobody tries to attack RED spawn from there...

Location: First RED Spawn
Difficulty: *
Stealth: **
Safety: **


Location: Point C tunnel
Difficulty: *
Stealth: **
Safety: *
Notes: You have to walk into the tunnel to see it and those who drop down will point towards the exit. The spawn exit is totally unused.


Location: Point C
Difficulty: **
Stealth: *
Safety: *
Notes: Requires some jumping. As long as BLU doesn't attack from the opposite door or looks up...

Location: Point A
Difficulty: **
Stealth: **
Safety: *
Notes: To place this one, face the rocks and go backwards along the wall until you can place it. You have to get close to the edge to see it, which shouldn't happen. Hidden by the rocks when BLU is attacking A.


Location: Point A
Difficulty: **
Stealth: **
Safety: *
Notes: Requires some jumping and precise placement. Only visible when turning around.


Location: Point A
Difficulty: *
Stealth: *
Safety: *
Notes: Hidden by the bush, as long as BLU doesn't look around too much.


Location: Point B
Difficulty: *
Stealth: **
Safety: **
Notes: The thin pathway isn't used much and the bush helps.


Location: Under the first RED Spawn
Difficulty: *
Stealth: *
Safety: *
Notes: Can be placed at the opposite wall to hide it from those entrering the sewer pipe, but then it's visible by those coming from above.

Keep in mind that Ninjaneering relies on both skill and luck. Your teleporter exit might get found sometimes and your team might need a functioning teleporter to not get steamrolled. Or they might just get steamrolled before you can exploit your hidden teleporter because matchmaking sucks. Or you accidentally won before spawns moved because you're a god with your sentry.

Thank you for reading, feel free to leave a rating and share this guide around with your friends.